This invention concerns pipe connection apparatus, and more specifically multiple pipe installations for selectively connecting any one of a plurality of inlet pipes to any one of a plurality of outlet pipes. The embodiment described herein is directed to pipes for circulation of petroleum products.
A routine requirement in multiline fluid distribution installations is to be able to connect any one of several inlet lines to any one of several outlet lines.
To this end consideration has already been given to disposing the inlet lines and the outlet lines in parallel planes and two perpendicular directions in these planes, and to providing the end of each line with a telescopic end-piece adapted to extend parallel to these planes until it comes into contact with the telescopic end-piece of any one line of the other category. This has various drawbacks, however.
First the use of telescopic end-pieces raises sealing, guidance and mechanical strength problems which, in practice, limit the application of this solution to small numbers of inlet and outlet lines. Less importantly, this solution does not lend itself well to automation. Furthermore, and more importantly, the use of telescopic sections necessarily involves a variation in the inside diameter which significantly reduces the effectiveness of a pipeline pig or scraper designed to cleanse the walls of inlet and outlet lines.
Another requirement in multiline fluid distribution installations has been for a "liquid switching station" formed of pipes all of which can be scraped clean.